As someone mentioned earlier about hauling plywood, thats what the notches were designed for. On full size pickups, you can fit 4x8 plywood or drywell between the wheel wells. On the smaller pickups, the place these notches so that they can still hual loads properly. I used that function a few times to haul drywall in my old '94 Ranger back in the day. Quite handy.

For the middle support, instead of nailing or screwing in braces, you could consider just attaching them with a little piano hinge. That would allow it to remain properly fixed when placed at 90 degrees for support, and will collapse down for easy storage. Just a thought...

After hours of research on various styles of sleeping platforms, I decided to try something very simple. Using the factory notches cut out in the 2nd Gen Tacoma bed liner......lay 2 2x6's in these notches, cut 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood, staple on carpet....done. It looks great, is very sturdy, there isn't a single screw, and the entire contraption pops in or out of the bed in less than 1 minute. Total cost: $75.

Here are a few photos.

Hope this helps anyone looking for a quick and easy elevated platform.

Cheers.

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Quick question,
Will this be strong enough to support 2 people? or should I prop it underneath somehow.

I did something similar. Mine is a short bed so I needed the tailgate to also function as part of the sleeping platform. I made a support piece which slides out and made a folding section that lies on top of the platform. The support piece is now set up to work as a table (folding legs) when it's out of the truck (no pics):

I did something similar. Mine is a short bed so I needed the tailgate to also function as part of the sleeping platform. I made a support piece which slides out and made a folding section that lies on top of the platform. The support piece is now set up to work as a table (folding legs) when it's out of the truck (no pics):

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Sweet setup! Never seen a truck tent like that, where'd you find that at?

Hey folks - so I'm new here, and I also don't own a Tacoma - I hope that doesn't disqualify me from the forum. I do own a sweet '06 Tundra though that I'm planning on driving from Alaska to the east coast and then on to the west coast. I'll be sleeping in the bed on a platform under a topper - the platform here looks awesome. So my questions are...do I need to worry about condensation forming on the truck bed if I don't have a liner in it? I'll definitely be hitting colder weather and I don't want my gear to get soaked from any moisture that may build up. Also, without a liner, will dust and moisture make its way from the road into the bed? Has anyone had any trouble with condensation forming on the inside of a fiberglass topper without any roof liner? Many thanks and I must say - it's awesome to see so many folks so pysched about their Toyota's!

You'll probably have some condensation in the topper (with or without a headliner in the topper), a little worse with no headliner. Some dust will find it's way into the bed, but unless you're traveling dusty gravel roads the entire trip, it's probably not worth worrying about. Have a good road trip!

Hey folks - so I'm new here, and I also don't own a Tacoma - I hope that doesn't disqualify me from the forum. I do own a sweet '06 Tundra though that I'm planning on driving from Alaska to the east coast and then on to the west coast. I'll be sleeping in the bed on a platform under a topper - the platform here looks awesome. So my questions are...do I need to worry about condensation forming on the truck bed if I don't have a liner in it? I'll definitely be hitting colder weather and I don't want my gear to get soaked from any moisture that may build up. Also, without a liner, will dust and moisture make its way from the road into the bed? Has anyone had any trouble with condensation forming on the inside of a fiberglass topper without any roof liner? Many thanks and I must say - it's awesome to see so many folks so pysched about their Toyota's!

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Yeah, you'll probably get a lot of condensation. Opening the windows a little will help, but you might get some pseudo-rain towards the early morning hours.

If the Tundra is anything like the Taco, there's probably some gaps near the tailgate that will let in dust. Also, make sure the weatherstripping on your topper is good to go.

Finally, head over to expeditionportal.com for lots of folks that have done similar. Great group, good ideas, and lots have done East Coast to AK trips, West Coast trips, etc. They can give you good tips on avoiding straight highway driving.

I did the same thing but found that even with 3/4" plywood it still sagged in the middle so I screwed center supports to the 2x6's. It is still completely removable and doesn't even think about budging when I lay on it. Also on my 2008 the slots were too deep for my 2x6s to slit flush so I shimmed them to try to make it as flush as possible. Doing that helps spread the load the entire length of the rails.

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I think the reason your 2x6s needed to be shimmed is that they don't appear to be 2x6s. In the photo, it looks like they are the same thickness as the 3/4" plywood, which would make them 1x6s. I think 2x6s would also be plenty strong enough to support two people, without center supports.

Edit one day later:

I just installed 3/4" plywood over 2x8s in my 2011 regular cab and there's no sag. I had to trim/narrow the last inch of each of the 2x8s down by about 3/8", since the slot is only 7" wide and a 2x8 is 7 3/8" wide. I figured it's better to have a board that fills the slot than one with slack.